In an article on the US Department of Education site, we learn a priority of the American Founding Fathers was public education. From its inception, diversity, equity and inclusion have been a consideration. The article highlights the increasing complexity and challenge of meeting those goals in proportion to the increasing diversity and changing economy in the US.

April 24 presents another Trump deadline. Here’s your chance to read “Dear Colleague” letter and the accompanying FAQ sent by the Federal Department of Education April 3rd to all 50 states. At my request, The ISDE shared it, along with the directives it passed along to each independent school district and charter across Idaho. I specifically asked if the US had expressed a clear and concise definition of DEI and how it currently exists in our schools. It’s still confusing.

Where I work, the Boise School District, we view on-going confusion as wasteful and harmful. We focus on ways to eliminate confusion about what we do and why. We collaborate with each other and our students to inspire, motivate, and direct student engagement towards mastery of the state standards in language arts, math, science and social studies.

How? We take the individual standards established by Idaho law and rephrase them as “Learning Intentions”. They go like this, “We are learning… so we can… ” Then, we lay out precise “Success Criteria” that students use as a checklist to demonstrate their learning. These begin with, “I can …” Teachers and students review the learning intentions and success criteria frequently because they guide us through all lessons within a learning cycle until we can check off each of the success criteria.

We’re asked to reflect on our own teaching and review student work to determine next steps for kids who have failed, met, or exceeded the learning intention. We create the conditions for engaging students in productive struggle to reach a clear goal. When educators do this well, we find that flow and joy in the work, too. We see students’ curiosity, motivation, cooperation and anticipation for future learning take off. The term we use for this is “agency”. We develop a deep understanding of our jobs and help students know the power of their own agency within the learning process. It takes time, work, trial and error, and letting go of ego. But when it’s done well, discipline issues and teacher burnout fade away.

Why does Boise bother going to such lengths? What happens when a class of students is beholden to their teacher as the sole authority over what and how to learn? Most of us know from personal experience. Older readers probably had bad coaches or teachers. Like any other profession, education has had its small share of dictators. Teacher tyrants enjoy withholding the intent of lessons and criteria for success, making students jump through hoops for grades. It’s unfair and a surefire way to undo students’ sense of agency. Kids who couldn’t navigate that teacher’s world self-select as smart/well-behaved, stupid/bad, or invisible/absent. Ironically, authoritarian teachers think of themselves as upholding the standards of a meritocracy. They refuse to reflect on how their own attitudes and methods actually determine the outcomes of students’ learning and behavior.

Back to the issue Idaho public schools have to contend with now. The fact is, MAGA hates public education. But they want to be the good guys in this fight they’ve started. They set it up as if the traditional Title VI-supported public programs and groups (Head Start, Women in STEM, Gay/Straight Alliance student clubs, etc.) are the monstrous Goliath, and that Trumpists–those with all the money, entitlement and power in the world, represent humble David. In their letter, public education is repugnant and shameful and pervasively racially discriminates. S1198 similarly describes our state higher education as teaching “a subversive ideology derived from the tenets of critical theory has infected the administration of this state’s system of higher education, promoting a culture of division, ignorance, bigotry, and intolerance.” At least the Trump Administration and the supporters of S1198 agree on the propaganda.

We know that most people in Idaho don’t view their public schools that way. Many Idahoans probably assume that with the passage of HB 93, and with public money soon flowing to home and private schools, that they will be required to certify to uphold Title VI, too. Nope. Money can be withheld from all public programs from preschools through universities, but nothing prevents public money flowing to private religious schools or homeschools. There’s just no way to construe this particular demand by the Trump DOE as a battle between a brave little guy with a big heart fighting an impossibly huge and evil behemoth for the greater good.

Here’s another way the decision to sign has twisted states’ legal departments, and maybe some districts, into knots. At this time, 16 states and Puerto Rico have signed. Sixteen have declined. It’s tricky because states that don’t have laws like S1198 think they know what Title VI stands for and have pledged already this year to uphold it in a certified letter. In fact, all schools across America that receive any federal funds certify every year to uphold Title VI. They’re wary of what signing this certification actually means for the civil rights protections of students and families they serve. Hesitation or refusal to sign has nothing to do with any wilful defiance of Title VI. On the contrary, some are declining in order to protect civil rights.

I appreciated the ISDE response I got when I asked for information. They have tried to clarify for districts what signing the certificate means, but it’s a snake-swallowing-tail explanation because they can only direct them to S1198. Read the law to get an idea of the tangled web it weaves–keeping in mind, it applies to higher education.

Beyond obvious DEI performance cases, like tampons in the boys’ bathroom, civil rights laws exist to keep the doors of opportunity open for everyone. Signatures on this certificate are an intentionally unclear ransom that gives the most chauvinist, most unChristian, most politically-motivated, least experienced, and least educated among us the power to set the terms of what’s true, fair and right in public schools and to inform on programs that “promote” whatever they deem DEI, even after we sign the certificate. Singing won’t put public education in MAGA’s good graces nor will it secure funding. MAGA’s immorality makes a mess of simply doing the right thing because it’s the right thing for students, families, and a strong society.